Two Hours of Music to Read To
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To join the parties virtually by listening to the live music broadcast as you read from home, become a paid subscriber to the FrizzLit Substack.
“The best reading series in Seattle… People simply gather with their books and read… from young women in dreadlocks to walrus-mustached Kindle warriors. The hush, the gentle communion… permeates the alcoholic glow of the room.”
— Gary Shteyngart in Travel + Leisure
Christopher Frizzelle used to have private Silent Reading Parties with two colleagues of his at The Stranger, Annie Wagner and Brendan Kiley. A few years later, the Sorrento approached him about event ideas to celebrate their 100th anniversary, and Frizzelle pitched a public Silent Reading Party. That happened in 2009, and it was so popular—people sitting on the floor, a line out the door—that the hotel asked him to keep doing it.
During the pandemic, it became a Zoom party that the New York Times called “mesmerizing.” To this day, some folks still attend, from all over the world, by tuning into the Zoom livestream.
It is just one of the ways Frizzelle has attempted to use literature to revitalize community and promote the arts.